Sorry to disappoint all the fans of toilet humour out there (I’m definitely one of them) – this post has absolutely nothing to do with flatulence (I thought I’d at least give you something there!)

Here in Blighty the weather at the moment is pants. Think snow, ice, grey skies, cold and arctic wind and you are almost there. Spring has definitely not sprung. Unfortunately, with only just over 2 weeks until I will be taking part in a 10k race, the training must go on.

Morning runs the past few weeks have taught me that even at -2 you will soon warm up after the initial ‘AAAHHHHHHHHH It’s FREEEEEEZING!!!!!!!’ panic. So, when I woke up feeling quite sprightly this morning (AMAZING for a Tuesday!) I decided to brave the weather once more and go for a quick 5k run before my regular Circuit Training class at 7:30AM.

What I was not prepared for, was the wind.

It felt like I was trying to run through a force field. A force field which steals your breath with it’s icy fingers. A force field which whips through your leggings and makes your skin sting.

I battled on, clinging to the hope that when I turned around, I’d be able to comfortably ride the wind all the way back. Why then, when I changed direction to head back towards the gym, did the wind decide to change direction too?!!!

The only thing that kept me going was the realisation that if I stopped running, I would be colder still AND it would take me even longer to get back. So I carried on, as fast as my stinging legs would carry me.

So I guess what I’m getting at here is that, wind is a bitch. No doubt about it. But, on the bright side, once you are out there it is also one hell of a motivator to run home as hard as you can!

This morning I stuck to my pledge and after completing a quick 30 minute workout, I spent around 5 minutes stretching out all of the major muscle groups.

OK, so it is only day one, but I am pretty pleased with myself!

And I must confess, that it really wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be. Although, I still can’t shake that ‘wimpy’ feeling.

The question in my mind now is:

“Does it really work?” Or should I say…

“To what extent does post workout stretching prevent DOMS?”

First things first, here’s the workout I did this morning (if you read my post about Tuesday’s last week then you’ll know that it doesn’t involve too much ‘moving’) :

10 x Assisted Pull Ups

25 x Press Ups

10 x Sumo Squats (Holding 24kg Dumbell)

1 Minute Plank

10 Squats (60kg on Smith Machine)

REPEAT the above x 3

10 x Clean and Push Press (with 8kg kettle bell in each hand)

12 x Full Kettle Bell Swing (with 12kg kettle bell)

30 Second Side plank on each side (lowering and lifting hips)

30 Second Plank on the Swiss Ball (rolling ball in and out)

REPEAT the above x 3

Previous experience tells me that both pull ups and 60kg squats usually leave me with a pretty serious case of DOMS around 48 hours later. Which means that I am scheduled for tightness and pain on Thursday morning…. so, the exact same time that I am scheduled to run another 10k then.

But since I stretched immediately after the workout, the affects should at least be reduced, right??

I’ll let you know on Thursday….

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from some of you about your thoughts and experiences with stretching and DOMS!

Sure, Mondays aren’t exactly ideal (especially if you’ve had a heavy weekend) but they do have their perks. The way I see it, the week goes something like this:

Monday – A fresh start to the week. The perfect day to start a new project or get back on track with an existing one. Everyone at work is chattering about what they got up to at the weekend. Monday’s at work always seem to whoosh by.

Wednesday – The half way mark. About now, people start to plan things for the next weekend.

Thursday – The day before Friday. Once you have got yourself to work, you can tell yourself that you only have to get up just once more. Hooray!

Friday – Well, it’s Friday! Everyone seems to be in a good mood, you may have fun plans for the evening, or just be looking forward to a night on the sofa with [insert desired vice here.]

Then we are left with Tuesdays. What happens on a Tuesday? Nothing. Nada. The past weekend is long gone, the next weekend is still an eternity away. Everyone is a bit grumpy, including ME.

When I arrive at the gym on a Tuesday morning, I pretty much always say the same, totally nonsensical thing to my gym buddy….

” Lets do something where we don’t have to move too much.”

By this I mean no ski jumps, no running, no squat thrusts and NO burpees. Usually, I like to reserve Tuesday’s for strength training. Slow (but painful!) movements seem to work the best.

Today however, I had to do a little more moving than I’d usually like. My gym buddy had heard about a workout challenge that people at our gym had been attempting to do within 30 minutes. Here it is in case anyone wants to give it a go!

800m Rowing

50 Press Ups

50 Sit Ups

50 Squats

20 Bent Over Rows

800m Rowing

50 Dead lift into Clean and Push Press

50 Dead lifts

50 Shoulder Presses

800m Rowing

I managed it 27 minutes and 24 seconds.

For about 10 minutes I was able to enjoy my post workout rush. Then I remembered that it was Tuesday and I still had to run home and wash my hair before work (you don’t know this yet, but I have a lot of hair!) That’s when in true Tuesday style, it all started to go wrong. My knee randomly started hurting so I was forced to walk home, leaving me even less time. I limped through the door and thought I’d whip up a quick protein shake for breakfast. Somehow, despite the lid being on, my shake ended up all over the worktop!! I salvaged enough for a small glass then hopped upstairs for a shower. In my haste to lather my hair up as speedily as possible, I knocked the entire shelf of shampoos, shower gels (and most worryingly my razor!) down onto my head. I rushed out of the house with slightly damp (if you’re in the UK today then you understand that this is made worse by how ridiculously cold it is!!!!) totally frizzy hair and no make up and made it to work just 1 minute late. Sat down at my desk to tuck into an orange…dropped it on the floor, bent down to pick it up and hit my head on my desk.

For all the reasons above, I am now going to DEMOLISH the last Carrot Cupcake from this weekend’s bake off… (told you my cake coma wouldn’t last long didn’t I?!)